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Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of His/Her Majesty's Government. The Prime Minister and Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior ministers, who are government department heads) are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party or parties, and ultimately to the electorate. The office of the prime minister is the highest elected political office in the modern United Kingdom. The office was not "created" or "established", but rather has evolved into existence over a period of three centuries, with various unwritten rules, customs, and laws hardening into the current office. This article lists the known prime ministers found in the works of Harry Turtledove after the Point of Divergence. Many prime ministers who served before the POD of a given alternate history are mentioned in passing. Also stories set in OTL may reference past PMs, or even the sitting PM. ''In the Presence of Mine Enemies'' With Germany emerging victorious from the Second World War, the United Kingdom was annexed to the [[Greater German Reich (In the Presence of Mine Enemies)|Greater German Reich]], and the British Union of Fascists became the country's only legal party. In 2010, the BUF launched a push for reform within its borders that saw the selection of a Prime Minister by popular vote by party members. Literary comment While Mosley is never actually called a PM in the novel, he clearly served in a nearly identical position, and so is included here for convenience. Southern Victory During the War of Secession, Prime Minister Lord Palmerston supported the seceding Confederate States, forging an alliance that would carry on into the next century and two wars. The United Kingdom was on the losing side of the Great War in 1917, and eventually begat a revanchist coalition of the Conservative Party led by Winston Churchill and the Silver Shirts led by Oswald Mosley in 1932. This coalition led the country into war against Germany in 1941. While initially successful, the tide turned against the UK starting in 1943. Germany destroyed three major British cities with superbombs in 1944, prompting a non-confidence vote which toppled Churchill. Horace Wilson became the acting PM, and pursued peace with Germany. ''The Two Georges'' Several people are mentioned as serving as PMs in the past, although their terms and their party aren't always identified. * Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, former Prime Minister, was Lord of the Treasury when he appeared in the painting ''The Two Georges''. * William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham PC, Prime Minister during the 1760s. He helped ease the tensions between Britain and its North American colonies, insuring that the British Empire remained intact. He appears in the painting The Two Georges. * , Frederick North, Lord North, Chancellor of the Exchequer and who succeeded Pitt as Prime Minister. He is in the painting, The Two Georges. * Benjamin Disraeli, presumably a PM in the 19th Century, as one of the Provinces of the NAU is named in his honour. (This is not conclusive, as being a PM is not a requirement for province nomenclature.) * There is an unnamed incumbent female PM in 1995. A popular readers' consensus identifies her as Margaret Thatcher, but as no details about this character are given, this hypothesis is no longer endorsed by this website. The War That Came Early Neville Chamberlain led Britain through the Second World War during its first phase against Germany (October 1938 to Summer 1940) and then after the "big switch" of mid-1940 which saw Britain align itself with Germany against the Soviet Union. In late 1940, Chamberlain's failing health led him to step down and press for the appointment of his close adviser, Horace Wilson. Wilson's term saw increased scrutiny of the ministry's critics at home and a crackdown on protests. Wilson's increasing authoritarianism finally prompted a military coup in the spring of 1941. The interim government detained Wilson, ended the war with the USSR, and restarted the war with Germany. It also promised elections throughout the remainder of 1941, but reset the date each time. Soon, it was 1943, and the military still held power. In the meantime, along with overseeing a war in North Africa and the reopening of the Western Front in Europe, the government reassigned several key members of the Wilson government to diplomatic positions in distant countries so as to keep them under control. Even after the war in Europe ended in 1944, the military maintained control over the government. Worldwar Only two Prime Ministers are identified in the series: * Winston Churchill, PM throughout the Worldwar quartet. * Anthony Eden, identified as the PM only in Aftershocks, but was probably the PM in Second Contact and Down to Earth as well. Other Prime Ministers Former Prime Minister John Russell, 1st Earl Russell plays a background role in The Guns of the South and the prologue of Southern Victory: American Front as the incumbent Foreign Secretary. Whether he returned to the prime ministry in 1865 either timeline, as in OTL, is unknown. In addition his roles listed above, Winston Churchill is the incumbent PM in "News From the Front", where he faces the same level of media criticism that President Franklin D. Roosevelt endures. In the novel ''Joe Steele'', the office follows the same line of succession as OTL during the period between 1937 and 1945, with Winston Churchill succeeding Neville Chamberlain in 1940, and in turn being succeeded by Clement Attlee in 1945. Whether Churchill returns to the office in 1951 as in OTL is undisclosed, as the novel's scope has left the United Kingdom before that time. Churchill directly appears in the novel, while Chamberlain and Attlee are only referenced. Churchill also appears in the short story, the only PM to do so. Clement Attlee is PM in The Man With the Iron Heart after defeating Winston Churchill in 1945, as in OTL. He probably is also the unnamed PM in The Hot War. Harold Macmillan appears as PM in "A Massachusetts Yankee in King Arthur's Court". Historical Prime Ministers in Non-PM Roles Several historical Prime Ministers have appeared in the works of Harry Turtledove in a capacity other than as Prime Minister. George Grenville is specifically mentioned in ''The Two Georges'' as having failed to gain the Prime Ministry. William Petty-FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Shelburne is in his OTL position of Secretary of State in The United States of Atlantis. It is unknown whether he became PM later in the Atlantis timeline. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington is referenced in Liberating Atlantis as a great general. Whether he became PM in the Atlantis timeline is unrevealed. William Gladstone is referenced in his OTL position of Chancellor of the Exchequer in The Guns of the South and The Great War: American Front. Whether or not he became PM in either timeline is unknown. Winston Churchill appears in The War That Came Early as an MP and Minister of War. He is killed in May 1940 before he can become PM. Anthony Eden appears as an MP in The War That Came Early, but the series ends before he has an opportunity to become PM. Harold Macmillan also appears as an MP in The War That Came Early, but the series ends before he has an opportunity to become PM. See Also *Monarch of the United Kingdom, the head of state of the United Kingdom *President of the United States, the office of the head of both state and government of the United States of America. *Governor-General of the North American Union, de facto political leader of the North American Union in ''The Two Georges''. While this office isn't defined very well, it appears to include aspects of both the US President and the UK Prime Minister, and probably functions as the head of government. Category:Titles Category:Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom Category:In the Presence of Mine Enemies Category:Southern Victory Category:The Two Georges Category:The War That Came Early Category:Worldwar